Weekend Open Forum: Where do you get your entertainment?

[Tekkaraiden]

Music: Used to download quite a bit during the Napster/ Kazaa days, I don't anymore. I've never been huge into music, but I'll buy the occasional CD and rip it onto my computer.

Gaming/Software: Before I had a full time job I used to trade software with my friends quite a bit. One of us would buy the game and the rest would make a copy. My C64 game library was mostly copies and cracked games. Now that I do work full time I buy what I want. Steam is an awesome service for pc gaming and for consoles, if I wait long enough I can get just about any game for $15-$30.

Movies/Tv: I don't have cable anymore and I don't miss it. I download the shows I want to watch and if I really enjoy the series I'll buy it on dvd. I'd use netflix but that isn't available in canada.

For movies I used to pay and download them off xbox live but since they changed it to the zune marketplace there is very little content now (at least in canada). Now I'll download some latest releases that look like they might be ok but I don't want to waste money on. I do live down the street from both a movie theater and a movie store so I do frequent them when ever there is something good playing. I won't download a handy cam version as the quality is too poor to bother with (I'm a bit of an a/v snob as I used to work for a high end a/v store). If I enjoy the movie I'll usually buy it when it come out on dvd.

 

[red1776]

If piracy effects the retail price then why are ps3 games not cheaper?

Cheaper than what?
My assertion (which I know of first hand ) is that corporations account for ,and calculate a cost of X% in to the price of the product for theft loss. I'm surmising that from your post that PS3 games are incapable of being hacked and pirated? if that indeed is true. than the question would be 'how much extra would they be if they were being pirated?' if you think that they are just to expensive, that's your opinion, but it may be that CODMW2 @ $48.54 is simply the cost of production X x% profit margin, or that the cost of theft/piracy is amortized across all versions of the game: X-box,PS3,PC etc. I think the second is more likely

 

[Guest]

I definitely do pirating, but I also buy used movie and video game. I still go to the movie theater. Music wise I get them online thru share server site or torrent with fast cable internet. It all depends on the content itself, if it worth owning it. I don't know anyone who don't do pirating.

 

[red1776]

I definitely do pirating, but I also buy used movie and video game. I still go to the movie theater. Music wise I get them online thru share server site or torrent with fast cable internet. It all depends on the content itself, if it worth owning it. I don't know anyone who don't do pirating.

Sadly guest....I believe you.
I have a question though. do you think that makes it okay? or do you just not care?

 

[Lurker101]

Usually, I get my entertainment at a bar.

 

[Guest]

Music = Torrents, or direct from artist when it's available (e.g. Nine Inch Nails)
Movies, TV Shows = Lovefilm (DVD mail rental service)
Games = Torrents, or Steam if it the price is heavily reduced

 

[Guest]

i usually download all my music, via torrents.. or off of rapidshare

if i find out that i enjoy a certain album, i will buy it

 

[Guest]

they opened this topic to see how badly piracy is now.
keep confessing all your sins.

 

[Guest]

If piracy stops, I will stop watching movies, tv shows, playing games, and just be stuck with my pirated music collection. which i download anything i see online but never actually listen to.

 

[Guest]

i don't do limewire anymore.. lets leave it at that..

and as for dvd's red box + DVD ripper =

 

[Burty117]

Guest said:
If piracy stops, I will stop watching movies, tv shows, playing games, and just be stuck with my pirated music collection. which i download anything i see online but never actually listen to.

Thats a good thing! means that if you did like the film or if a friend said it was good and you wanted to watch whatever film it is, you'd HAVE to buy it one way ore the other.

Why waste hard drive space on music you not going to listen to anyway?

 

[tonylukac]

I have never pirated a single game altho I don't have many. Very few pc games are available at Toys R Us, for example. I find free demo games to be satisfying. Due to viruses and 50k throttling by my isp I don't torrent. Most of my "entertainment" time is spent here at Techspot reading articles and responding to these and other forums. Redbox is a nice option which I've used occasionally. I wish they got blu-ray disks, then I'd get a blu-ray player. I intended to equip my homebuilt pc with a blu-ray burner, but am told it is clunky and don't like the drm crap. It may not even work with the vga monitor I'm using. Dancing With The Stars was nice entertainment gotten free thru an antenna (hidef) with no cable fees. Lucky we live 18 miles away from the Chicago broadcast antennas. SInce I volunteered at a library I guess I don't have much home view movie mentality, altho I've seen a few movies at theatres lately, one in 3d, and ironically I don't read books.

 

[LinkedKube]

red1776 said:
well I have to say that its really been a pleasure paying for all of you who pirate,steal, borrow, try out, or whatever gets you through the night. You are the reason that my copy of CODMW2 was $60, and the copy of Metro 2033 was $50.
And before some genius comes in here in a clever attempt to say that piracy doesn't cost anybody anything unless a physical object leaves the store in someones shorts, and proceed to tell me that I don't understand economics....yeah that's BS. I do understand and know first hand that theft is accounted for and built into the cost of goods and services. It has a place on the spreadsheet the same as turning on the lights and garbage collection. if it doesn't cost the rest of us at the POS, it costs us in the limited selection of quality products to choose from. But hey, you can get away with it right? BTW, im sure vehicles cost too much as well right? why not "try one out first" and see how that works out for you.

ditto to that, i bought my copy of mw2 about a month ago and did a double take when I saw the price on the box. I could have sworn the first mw was only 49 usd.

 

[Guest]

I've always gone the illegal route where possible. I think of it as a try before you buy sorta thing. Console games I buy, though, as it's a little difficult to pirate them. But my beef with Steam is that why should I have to pay x amount of dollars and then still have to waste a significant amount of my monthly internet usage when I can just as easily obtain the game without having to pay for it?

 

[Julio Franco]

@Darkshadoe, I'm afraid I couldn't take part in this discussion earlier...
For starters, I have undeleted your first few messages since I don't see anything wrong or offending about them. And yes, I agree to an extent that Matt was "asking for it" when he used this as a topic for the Weekend Open Forum.

Now, I don't regret having used the topic at all, I'm just thinking "what if" we had approached it differently, after all we recurrently cover on the news digital content distribution services, from Netflix to Hulu and even Torrent sites.

As for TechSpot's stance, NO we don't "actually work for the RIAA, or MPAA," that's a foolish thing to say, but I'm not surprised considering who hinted that. We are an enthusiast publication and community site and if anyone has any doubts about that, then they are free to leave or post somewhere else. And one last remark, yes, I wouldn't recommend you to post anything that is considered illegal here or on any public forum.

 

[bugejakurt]

Music: I generally download albums from torrent sites.

Movies: I download movies from torrent sites.

Torrents rules them all.

 

[bugejakurt]

For Games: I generally buy them when I know they are beautiful. I dont download games that often.

 

[Guest]

Hmm, very interesting.

Games I only pirate on a "try before you buy" basis when I am unable to obtain a demo - eg the latest COD - I was very unsure whether I would enjoy the game, so got a cracked copy first - and I was glad I did - because after two missions I realised that it just did not work for me - I would have been extremely irritated if I had paid retail only to discover that I hated it with no option to return for my money back. OTOH, the demo of Batman was brilliant - so I bought it as soon as it came out and enjoyed the game thoroughly.

Movies, similarly, try before I buy - download copies don't have all the good things such as subtitles, good quality, etc. so if I'm unsure, I'll view a bootleg - if I like it, I'll buy the original for all the extras - if not, delete! (as an aside, in all my years of cinema going there have been many occasions where a film is so bad that I've simply left a 1/4 of the way through - money down the tubes - never been refunded).

TV shows and some music but only when I can't obtain it any other way or if I'm unsure of whether I really like it - if I like it, I buy it.


The thing about the interwebs is that provides the consumer with additional leverage in the entertainment industry - prior to this, it was not only "buyer beware" it was "if we can convince you to buy our product and you hate it afterwards, well that's too bad - ha ha sucks to be you" - now I can test something thoroughly before committing my hard earned cash.

The entertainment industry needs to wake up and realise that they need to develop new business models that take the internet into account from the ground up. I buy 100% of what I like - if I don't like it, I delete it.

One of my major issues with piracy stats is that the publishers assume that every that is pirated represents a lost sale - it doesn't.

 

[TorturedChaos]

Games: I play mostly console games, so I pick them up used in game shops or pawn shops. I have torrented a few computer games to demo them and make sure I like them before I shell out the cash. There have been quite a few that I have played for a few hours, decided I had not interest in this game and deleted it. The games I actually enjoy playing I do own, at least owned at one time - I have torrented a few games that the disc either have gotten lost or destroyed accidentally

Music: A few friends and I share a lot of songs, and I will admit I have downloaded quite a few or ripped them off youtube video's.

Movies: I used to torrent all the movies I wanted, until I got an angry notice from Fox for downloading Avatar, for which I was rather annoyed that I got in trouble for a movie I didn't even like. Least they could have down is yell at me for a good movie .

TV: I don't really buy any TV shows or download them. I have downloaded a lot of anime, most things that have not been released here and have Fansubs on them.

 

[captaincranky]

Folk Medicine and Other Harsh Remedies

@Darkshadoe, I'm afraid I couldn't take part in this discussion earlier...
For starters, I have undeleted your first few messages since I don't see anything wrong or offending about them. And yes, I agree to an extent that Matt was "asking for it" when he used this as a topic for the Weekend Open Forum.

Why I'm flabbergasted that you say that Julio. I mean really, what could go wrong by posting an open invitation to every loudmouth torrent freak, to come to Techspot, (as a "Guest" of course), and brag unrepentantly about how much intellectual property they've stolen, then rationalize it with BS you couldn't float past the average third grader. Gee, where's the harm in that?

Now, I don't regret having used the topic at all, I'm just thinking "what if" we had approached it differently, after all we recurrently cover on the news digital content distribution services, from Netflix to Hulu and even Torrent sites.

How about this, "how much TV do you watch at Hulu and other network sites"? Still too inflammatory? Well no, I know, but it certainly wouldn't generate as much traffic. Well, no topic is perfect now is it?

Oddly, all of the responsible members, (yes, including myself), steer away from topics such as installing new OSes in netbooks, password cracking, stripping DRM from any source, DVD rippers, et al. Yet we, ("inadvertently", of course), make one the most controversial segments of computer misuse, the subject of the "Weekend Open Forum".

As for TechSpot's stance, NO we don't "actually work for the RIAA, or MPAA," that's a foolish thing to say, but I'm not surprised considering who hinted that. We are an enthusiast publication and community site and if anyone has any doubts about that, then they are free to leave or post somewhere else. And one last remark, yes, I wouldn't recommend you to post anything that is considered illegal here or on any public forum.

The quickest way to bring a predator out in the open, is for an FBI agent to join a chat room as a 13 year old girl. One has to assume that that would work for illegal torrents as well. A few seed albums, movies, and games and you're in. So, while I don't actually think anybody at TS is in law enforcement of any kind, my post was just a jocular reference to this type of behavior on the part of law enforcement agencies. In fact, enough litigation has occurred that favors law enforcement, which negates "entrapment" as any sort of a viable defense.

And lastly, when you allow "guests" coming onto your site to post garbage such as this....,

"I stole 850 DVDs, 2 HDDs full of music, I torrent everything I can get my mouse on, f*** the RIAA".

Please have the good taste not to pull my response down. As far I am concerned, when you invite flaming, when you beg to be flamed, and when you so richly deserved to be flamed, then I'm here for you, in thick or thin, rich or poor, and until you pry the keyboard from my cold dead hand, I have your flaming, it's ready, and if you're late for it, all I have to do is reheat it in the microwave. Even sociopaths like this particular "guest" have the right to know what many people think of them, even if it will not change their mind, or their behavior one stinking iota.....